MAYOR BLOOMBERG LAUNCHES MEASURES TO MAKE NEW YORK CITY'S ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW PROCESS MORE TRANSPARENT AND USER-FRIENDLY FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND HOMEOWNERS

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today
launched four measures to make New York City’s environmental review process
more transparent and user-friendly for small businesses and homeowners. The
measures include a new Environmental Assessment Statement short form with clear
requirements that apply to small projects such as changes in property line
delineation; a clarified full form to better target and improve the analysis of
the potential impacts on medium-sized projects; an upgraded Mayor’s Office of
Environmental Coordination website to create a one-stop-shop for environmental
review including forms, calendars and review support; and a revised and more
user-friendly City Environmental Quality Review Technical Manual to improve the
quality of analysis and its reporting.

“If the City’s environmental review processes are to be accurate and
thorough, business owners and homeowners need to be able to understand what’s
being asked of them,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The measures we’re launching today
will clarify the requirements and, as a result, they will reduce the time it
takes applicants to comply and lessen the need for them to hire expensive
consultants and attorneys.”

“Complying with City regulations
isn’t supposed to be cruel and unusual punishment for our small businesses and
homeowners,” said City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “These measures will
streamline the certification process, create an improved website, and provide
better forms, all in the interest of eliminating the small print and
bureaucratic foot-dragging. We don’t want to antagonize small
businesses: we’re looking to nurture and support them. These new measures
will make sure we complete the environmental review process – with
better and more modern responses to environmental issues – while making things
as simple as possible for everyone involved.”

“The challenge here was to create an
environmental review process that is more robust yet easier to follow – and the
City has succeeded,” said New York League of Conservation Voters President
Marcia Bystryn. “The addition of a greenhouse gas analysis is a major
improvement that will give a snapshot of a project’s climate change impacts and
help identify areas for improvement. Plus, the more detailed infrastructure
analysis will give a truer picture of water and sewer needs. Perhaps the
greatest benefit is a simplified process and checklist that actually encourages
applicants to follow the rules. We applaud Mayor Bloomberg and his team for this
step forward and for their ongoing commitment to a cleaner, greener New York City.”

Environmental review is mandatory
for any project, public or private, that requires a City discretionary
decision.Each year, approximately
250 separate projects trigger City environmental review.Projects requiring review range from
large area-wide rezonings to small changes in property line
delineation.

In 2009, Mayor Bloomberg announced a
commitment to make the environmental review process more consistent,
transparent, and user-friendly. An interagency team representing more than a
dozen City agencies, including the Office of Environmental Coordination,
Department of City Planning, Department of Housing Preservation and Development,
Board of Standards and Appeals, Department of Transportation, and Department of
Environmental Protection, has worked to revise the Technical Manual and create
new methods to target analysis and improve the quality of review.

The four measures designed to
improve the environmental review process are:

One-stop shop for
City Environmental Quality
Review-Related Information –
The City has improved the Mayor’s Office of Environmental
Coordination’s website to create a centralized calendar for
public hearing and comment periods, a single location for forms, as well as a
how-to guide for getting through the City Environmental Quality Review
process. For the first time, the website will include a help-line staffed by
the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination to answer City Environmental
Quality Review-related questions.

Annotated Environmental Assessment Statement Short Form for Unlisted Actions
– The City created an annotated Environmental Assessment Statement
Short Form that will streamline reporting for smaller projects.The checklist format focuses analysis on key subject areas and
discloses any impacts while simplifying reporting.

Annotated Environmental Assessment StatementFull Form – The City has revised the Environmental Assessment Statement
Full Form to focus the analysis on the areas where the anticipated impacts of
the project trigger review. The form will provide clear guidance for analysis
with an eye towards improving the quality of assessments and eliminating
unnecessary and often overwhelming text.

Revised
City
Environmental Quality ReviewTechnical Manual – Revised for the first time in nearly a decade, the new
manual has more readable chapters, provides clearer thresholds to target
reviews, and provides greater instruction on the analysis and methodology
required. The manual includes new topics that align with modern environmental
concerns (Greenhouse gas emissions, pedestrian wind, sustainability/PlaNYC, and refined infrastructure) and
will be reviewed periodically to be more responsive to technological and
methodological improvements.